1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a program, system and method for analyzing the features of retrieval keywords input into a WWW (World Wide Web) retrieval system (or WWW search system and hereinafter referred to as “retrieval system”) by a Web browsing person (hereinafter referred to as just “browsing person”) in order to search for a target Web page or Web site in the WWW.
2. Description of the Related Art
As an example of an access target in the Internet, a Web page and a Web site are available. The Web page and Web site are operated for various kinds of purposes including advertisement, information provision and order reception. To achieve such an object effectively, the Web page and Web site are analyzed and investigated.
For example, an analyzer can determine a strategy about banner advertisement, publication in a directory site and participation in a prize site by knowing through which other Web sites an analyzed object Web site has been accessed. The analyzer can determine a policy for improvement of the content by knowing which retrieval has been executed and whether or not the analyzed object Web site has been accessed through a retrieval engine.
As a method of analyzing and investigating the Web page and Web site, Web access log analysis using Web access log, which stores when, how and which Web page has been accessed is available. There are mainly two kinds of the Web access logs. The first Web access log is a Web access log (Web access log in a narrow sense) recorded in a single or multiple Web servers. The second Web access log is a Web access log which stores accesses on various kinds of Web pages or Web sites by a single or multiple browsing persons. The second Web access log includes, for example, an access log which stores accesses on the Web page or Web site by each panel, which is collected from panels (or monitors) by a WWW audience measurement research company. The Web access log mentioned hereinafter means the first Web access log.
For example, the Web access log analysis investigates how the number of browsing persons (users, visitors) who access the Web page or Web site changes depending on time or day of the week. In the Web access log analysis, the kind of browser or computer OS may be investigated. In the Web access log analysis, how a browsing person acts within a single Web site or among multiple Web sites may be investigated. For example, a path analysis, clarifying that a browsing person has browsed Web page A and next browsed Web page B, and so on, is included in the Web access log analysis.
On the other hand, to support browsing on the Web page or Web site on the Internet, there exists a retrieval system indicating as a retrieval result page a list on information (for example, uniform resource locators (URL), summary information, link information and the list of keyword related pages or keyword related site) of Web pages (hereinafter referred to as “keyword related page”) or Web sites (hereinafter referred to as “keyword related site”). Such a retrieval system is widely used.
FIG. 1 shows an example of screen transition of typical Web pages using the retrieval system. If a retrieval keyword is input through a browsing person's browser on a retrieval keyword input screen 1, retrieval start is instructed and then, the retrieval system extracts links 2a to 2c to a keyword related page. Next, a retrieval result page 2, indicating the links 2a to 2c to the extracted keyword related pages, is displayed to the browsing person. If any link on the retrieval result page 2 is clicked, the keyword related page of the clicked link is displayed on a browsing person's browser. For example, a link 2a is clicked, a keyword related page 3 is displayed. If the retrieval system is employed, the keyword and additional information including its input date and time are recorded in the Web access log of the Web server.
Therefore, the analysis on the retrieval keyword (hereinafter referred to as “retrieval keyword analysis”) using the Web access log is enabled. In the retrieval keyword analysis, for example, how many times some retrieval keywords have been input is investigated. For example, whether or not the retrieval results on the retrieval result page have been actually clicked is investigated. For example, how many keyword related pages have been extracted corresponding to a certain retrieval keyword is investigated. Japanese Patent Application KOKAI Publication No. 2002-123517 discloses retrieval keyword analysis technology, commercial tool, non-commercial tool and services.
In the Web access log analysis, analysis of Web sites accessed just before an analyzed object Web site and analysis on the number of browsing persons corresponding to each retrieval keyword are carried out using reference information (known as “referrer”) and the like.
However, the conventional Web site access log analysis disables an analyzer to understand whether or not a browsing person is satisfied with an analysis object Web site or how much a success (object) in the analysis object Web site is achieved. For example, assume that an analysis object Web site intends to improve sale amount of products. The conventional Web access log analysis enables to obtain the number of browsing persons for each retrieval keyword input to a retrieval engine if an analysis object Web site is accessed based on the retrieval result of the retrieval engine. However, even if there are many browsing persons, no product may be purchased from an analysis object Web site. Even if there are few browsing persons, most of them may purchase the product.
Thus, the analyzer cannot judge whether or not a browsing person who inputs that retrieval keyword is satisfied with an analysis object Web site and which retrieval keyword that browsing person inputs to achieve the object of the Web site. For example, the conventional Web access log analysis enables to investigate how many keyword related pages have been extracted corresponding to a certain retrieval keyword. The analyzer may judge, from viewpoints of preventing some Web pages desired by the browsing person from being neglected from extraction, that the more keyword related pages are extracted, the more the browsing person is satisfied with the retrieval result, and conversely the fewer, the less he is satisfied. However, the number of the extracted keyword related pages does not indicate the degree of satisfaction of the browsing person directly. Actually, in some cases, if the number of the extracted keyword related pages is smaller, the browsing person selects a desired link more easily so that browsing person's desire is satisfied and the degree of satisfaction is higher. That is, if keyword related pages which meet a browsing person's desire are represented to the browsing person as a retrieval result, the browsing person is more satisfied with the retrieval result in the case where a smaller number of extracted keyword related pages is presented than in the case where a redundant retrieval result is presented.
Thus, the analyzer cannot judge whether or not the browsing person is satisfied with a retrieval result from the conventional Web access log analysis. For example, by investigating whether or not a link to the keyword related pages on the retrieval result page is actually clicked and if any link is clicked, which link to keyword related page is clicked, it is possible to know which keyword related page on the retrieval result page has been selected by the browsing person. However, it is extremely difficult for the analyzer to judge whether or not an accessed keyword related page actually contains the contents which the browsing person wants and whether or not the browsing person is satisfied with the result according to the conventional Web access log analysis (evaluate the retrieval result qualitatively).